I wanted to share a link with you on narration because I know a lot of people who regularly check out this blog are writers themselves. It comes from the Echo Ink Review, which is doing a couple of really neat things right now, including a free writing workshop (which is literally worth its weight in gold).

Not only that, they're actually PAYING people who contribute. How crazy, I know! In addition, they sometimes "tip" writers whose work shows promise but was nonetheless rejected. Sure, it's only $3, but for a struggling fiction writer that feels like $1,000 or so.

Here's a little taste of the essay:

Viewing Beth, however, as a realistic character seems to create problems within the story. For instance, considering the two primary voices within the story, the narrator's and Beth's, is to recognize a division within the story, which raises questions: are both Beth and the narrator two separate characters making sense of mortality; are they both coming to terms with the ultimate truth? If so, why the distinction between voices? At best, two such individual voices suggest a convoluted and schizoid structure; at worst, they make absolutely no sense. Seemingly, Beth's conflict could have been more economically resolved through a restrictive third person or even a first person point of view.

Click here to read the whole thing.

It's worth pointing out that you can understand the essay even better if you can acquire a copy of "Thirst" by Nannette Rogers Kennedy. Even without it, though, you should feel your brain working a bit. If you like what you're reading, buy a copy of Echo Ink Review because literary journals like this keep writers sane.

Yours,

Ken Brosky